This chapter is from the book

This chapter is from the book

BIOS Setup

Most systems have the setup program built right in to the ROM BIOS software.
These built-in setup programs are activated by a key sequence usually entered
during the POST. Most systems show a prompt on the screen during the POST
indicating which key to press to enter the BIOS Setup.

The major vendors have standardized on the following keystrokes to enter the
BIOS Setup:

For AMI BIOS, press Del during POST.

For Phoenix BIOS, press F2 during POST.

For Award BIOS, press Del or Ctrl+Alt+Esc during POST.

For Microid Research BIOS, press Esc during POST.

If your system does not respond to one of these common keystroke settings,
you might have to contact the manufacturer or read the system documentation to
find the correct keystrokes to enter Setup.

Here are some unique ones I have encountered:

For IBM Aptiva/Valuepoint, press F1 during POST.

For Older Phoenix BIOS, boot to a Safe Mode DOS command prompt and then
press Ctrl+Alt+Esc or Ctrl+Alt+S.

For Compaq, press F10 during POST.

After you're in the BIOS Setup main screen, you'll usually find a
main menu allowing access to other menus and submenus offering various sections
or screens. When you get the Setup program running, record all the settings. The
easiest way to do this is to print it. If a printer is connected, press
Shift+Print Screen; a copy of the screen display will be sent to the printer.
Some setup programs have several pages of information, so you should record the
information on each page.

Some setup programs allow for specialized control of the particular chipset
used in the motherboard. These complicated settings can take up to several
screens of information, which you may want to record. Most systems return these
settings to a BIOS default if the CMOS battery is removed, and you lose any
customized settings you might have changed.

Accessing BIOS Setup for Specific Makes and Models

This section shows some of the procedures required to enter BIOS Setup using
keystrokes on specific popular laptop models.

IBM

Table 3.4 shows the methods used to run the BIOS Setup routines on all IBM
ThinkPad systems.

Table 3.4 Entering BIOS Setup on IBM ThinkPads

Current ThinkPad Models

To Run BIOS Setup:

240 series 390 series 570 series i Series 1200 i Series
1300 i Series 1400 i Series 1500 i Series 172x A20, A21, A22, A30, A31 R30, R31,
R32, S30, S31 T20, T21, T22, T23, T30 X20, X21, X22, X23, X24, X30,
X31

Power on. Press F1 when the ThinkPad logo is displayed during
startup.

TransNote

R40, R40e, T40

Power on. Press the blue "Access IBM" button during
startup when the message "To interrupt normal startup, press the blue
Access IBM button" is displayed. Then select "Start setup
utility" to run the BIOS Setup Utility.

Older ThinkPad Models

To Run BIOS Setup:

300350500, 510

Press CTRL+Alt+F3 at an MS-DOS prompt. The system must be in
MS- DOS mode and not in a DOS session under Windows.

310, 315310E/ED315ED

Power on. Press F2 while the ThinkPad logo is displayed
during startup.

365C/CS365CD/CSD365E/ED

Press CTRL+Alt+F11 at an MS-DOS prompt. The system must be in
MS-DOS mode and not in a DOS session under Windows.

365X/XD

With the unit powered off, press and hold the F1 key while
powering the unit on. Continue to hold the F1 key down until Setup
appears.

With the unit powered off, press and hold the F1 key while
powering the unit on. Continue to hold the F1 key down until Setup appears. On
the TP 701, you can also access BIOS Setup by pressing the Fn+F1 keys
atanytime.

700/C, 720/C

Power on. Press CTRL+ALT+INS when the cursor moves over to
the upper-right side of the screen, right after the memory count during
startup.

710T, 730T

Press and hold the suspend/resume switch while powering on the computer.

Toshiba

The methods discussed first in this section are used to run the BIOS Setup
routines on Toshiba laptop systems for the following Toshiba models:

From Windows, using the HWSetup programThe HWSetup program
comes preinstalled on these Toshiba models, and it is also contained in the
Toshiba Utilities package for these models, which can be downloaded from the
Toshiba support Web site. To run HWSetup, open the Control Panel and
double-click the HWSetup program. If you change any settings, you may be
required to restart the system.

Starting with the system powered off (not in sleep/suspend or
hibernate mode)Start with the system powered off. Press the power
button and then immediately press and hold the Esc key while the system runs the
POST (Power On Self Test). When the POST finishes, a prompt will appear telling
you to press the F1 key to enter BIOS Setup. At that time, press the F1 key to
access the BIOS Setup program.

From MS-DOS, running the TSETUP programTSETUP must be run
under MS-DOS mode and not in a DOS session under Windows. The TSETUP utility
will not work if a memory manager such as HIMEM.SYS, QEMM386, or
equivalent is installed. TSETUP comes with the software provided with the
system, or it can be downloaded from the Toshiba support Web site.

The next method discussed in this section is for the following Toshiba
models:

These models use a Phoenix BIOS. To access the BIOS Setup on these systems,
the system must be off, and not in sleep/suspend or hibernate mode. Press the
power button and then immediately press and hold down the F2 key. When the POST
(Power On Self Test) finishes, the BIOS Setup screen will appear.

These are "legacy-free" models, and they do not incorporate a BIOS
Setup program in the motherboard ROM. The only way to run BIOS Setup is using a
Windows-based BIOS Setup utility called HWSetup. The HWSetup utility comes
preinstalled on these Toshiba models, and it is also contained in the Toshiba
Utilities package for these models, which can be downloaded from the Toshiba
support Web site. To run HWSetup, open the Control Panel and double-click the
HWSetup program. HWSetup provides a graphical front end for modifying BIOS
settings. Note that if you change any settings, you may be required to restart
the system.

Compaq

The following methods are used to run the BIOS Setup routines on Compaq
laptop systems:

For Presario models, power on the system and press F2 to enter BIOS Setup
when the logo screen appears during startup.

For Evo models, power on the system and press F10while the
"F10 = ROM Based Setup" message is displayed in the lower-left corner
of the screen during startup.

For Prosignia models, power on the system and press F10when the
blinking cursor appears in the upper-right corner of the display during
startup.

Dell, Gateway, and Others

To run the BIOS Setup routines on Dell, Gateway, Sony, Acer, MPC, FOSA, and
most other laptop systems, power on the system and then press F2 to enter BIOS
Setup when the logo screen appears during startup.

Running the BIOS Setup Program (CMOS Setup)

After everything is reassembled, you can power up the system and run the BIOS
Setup program. This enables you to configure the motherboard to access the
installed devices and set the system date and time. The system also tests itself
to determine whether any problems exists. Here are the steps to follow:

Power on the system. Observe the operation via the screen and listen for
any beeps from the system speaker.

The system should automatically go through a Power On Self Test (POST)
consisting of video BIOS checking, a RAM test, and usually an installed
component report. If a fatal error occurs during the POST, you might not
see anything onscreen, and the system might beep several times, indicating
a specific problem. Check the motherboard or the BIOS documentation to determine
what the beep codes mean.

If there are no fatal errors, you should see the POST display onscreen.
Depending on the type of motherboard BIOS, such as Phoenix, AMI, Award,
or others, you must press a key or series of keys to interrupt the normal
boot sequence and get to the Setup program screens that enable you to enter
important system information. Normally, the system indicates via the onscreen
display which key to press to activate the BIOS setup program during the
POST, but if it doesn't, check the manual for the key(s) to press to
enter the BIOS setup. Common keys used to enter BIOS Setup are F1, F2, F10,
Esc, Ins, and Del.

After the Setup program is running, use the Setup program menus to enter
the current date and time, your hard drive settings, floppy drive types,
video cards, keyboard settings, and so on. Most newer BIOSes can autodetect
the hard drive, so you should not have to manually enter any parameters
for it.

Entering the hard drive information is the most critical when building
a new system. Most modern BIOSes feature an autodetect or auto-type setting
for the drive; I recommend you choose that if it is available. This causes
the BIOS to read the parameters directly from the drive, which eliminates
a chance for errorsespecially if the builder is less experienced.
These parameters include CHS (Cylinder Head Sector) specifications and transfer
speed and translation settings. Most systems also let you set a user-definable
type, which means that the cylinder, head, and sector counts for this
type were entered manually and are not constant. If you set a user-definable
type (not normally recommended unless you don't have "auto"
as a choice), it is especially important that you write down the exact settings
you use because this information might be very difficult to figure out if
it is ever lost.

Modern ATA drives also have additional configuration items that you should
record. These include the translation mode and transfer speed setting. With
drives larger than 528MB, you should record the translation mode, which is
expressed differently in different BIOS versions. Look for a setting such
as CHS, ECHS (Extended CHS), Large (which equals ECHS), or LBA (Logical Block
Addressing). Typically, you set LBA or Large for any drive over 528MB. Whatever
you set, it should be recorded because changing this setting after the drive
has been formatted can cause problems.

After you have checked over all the settings in the BIOS Setup, follow
the instructions on the screen or in the motherboard manual to save the
settings and exit the Setup menu.